Advent Bloghop Day 19

**Unfortunately something has gone wrong and the post hasn't been publiced in time. I had it scheduled at 18u, but it didn't appear then. I wasn't at home and could check it only later in the evening. I'm so sorry!**

Welcome to day 19 of the Advent Bloghop, organised by Alexandra Renke and her team!

Today it is my turn together with

Evy

and

Kerstin

For a long time I only had  an eye for paper, stamps and dies from the USA. However it didn't do any justice to the materials from our neighbours in Germany. There you can buy wonderful materials as well, in a totally different style. I makes me thinking of Scandinavia. Simple and delicate desings and products of high-quality. Judith pointed me at the call for the advent bloghop on Alexandra's blog, I applied for a spot and yes, I was one of the 65 lucky people who received a huge box with materials! Today I like to show you what I made with the materials.

The task was to create something for someone whom you like to say 'thank you' to. Well, I'd like to say thank you to my fellow group members and our teacher of my sewing group. Every two weeks I attend the lesson and I love creating my own dresses and skirts. The group is very supportive, especially in times of exams. Always encouraging and understanding when I'm tired of my studies and work. I made a card for my teacher, which will be given together with a chocalate bar of Tony's chocolonely. I'm sure she will love it!

For the other women I bought litte organza bags. I put some chocolate in it and decorated it with the lovely design papers from the package. I created a tag with the die which was also in the box. Yes, we were definitely spoiled with the materials in the box!

 

The text in the left bauble is a stamp which says 'thank you' in several languages, even in Dutch! Don't you love that little gnome on the right? Let´s be honest. I haven´t finished all bags, I have some work to do in the coming days...

There were so many materials that I could make many more things. So, I created a Christmas card without having someone special in mind.

Don´t you love the little stars made with an embossing folder?

Next I'd like to show you a gift box I made for my cousin and her husband. My cousin and her husband are celebrating their 25th wedding anniversary today. My cousin had always told us: 'If I am getting married, you will be our bridesmaids!'. And so, on 19 December 1991 we had a splendid day in beautiful dresses, made by my mother. We, as their former bridesmaid, thought it would be nice to give them a present for their anniversary and we decided to give them a gift card for a lunch for two. I made a gift box to put the voucher box in and an envelop for a little card with our message and some money for extra drinks.

 Unfortunately, you can't see the little grey angels on the white strip on the gift box...

Finally, a card without a text and I'm not sure whether it is too simple or not... I have punch three circles with lovely scenes on it. Some twine and gorgeous paper, I would say it is perfect :)

These are the first three Christmas cards I have made this year so far.... Having exams in December is definitely not okay for stocking your Christmas cards... I´m afraid I can´t send many handmade Christmas greetings, but hopefully I can make it good in the new year with cards send out without a special occasion as a card sending for fun is the best!  

Alexandra, together with your team, thank you so much for this bloghop! I have really enjoyed it!

Thank you for hopping by and make sure to visit Adriana, Katja and Kerstin tomorrow.

Welcome, little Esther

I hardly believe that it has already been December! Time is flying at the moment and I'm quite busy with work and studies. And less busy with craft related activities... It's a pity. I sometimes creates a card or work on some other projects. If you follow me on Instagram, you can see some activities now and then. However, I'm sure, better times will be ahead :)

Our friends in Singapore got a little girl, Esther. Of course I had to make her a card.

 I asked a friend to embroider a onesie in the Dutch colours on her embroidery machine. Isn't it cute?

I'm always a bit nervous when shipping abroad, but luckily the card, onesie and some other presents arrived safely.

I sent this card to her grandparents. 

I didn't have time for taking photos with my camera, so these are taken with my phone, hence the quality.

For now I am working on a project for the Adventskalender bloghop by Alexandra Renke's team. Hop over to Alexandra's blogpost for more information. Each day of this time of Advent a new project will be shown with materials from Alexandra. Alexandra and Ellis started off the bloghop last Thursday. So glad I can participate in this bloghop. And I can assure you that the materials are wonderful!

Have a lovely weekend and thanks for coming by!

CAS baby card

I've got a CAS baby card for you today. Made with a MFT Elephant die (from Jungle friends) and a Concord and 9th stamp set. Some twine and a gingham piece of paper for the finishing touch and that is it.

 

 

Challenge: Addicted to Stamps and More (Anything goes)

 

Thanks for hopping by!

 



Autumn

On this rainy and windy day I'd like to show you a card with an autumn feeling. I used some papers from a Simple Stories line from last year. The leaves dies are from Simply Graphic and the hello die is from MFTstamps.

 

 

I'm enjoying my autumn break this week which means some extra time to spend in my craftroom! 

Thanks for coming by! 

Gingham elephant?

Have you ever seen gingham elephants? I was invited to be guestdesigner at the City Crafter blog. This week's theme is 'Did I make you up?'. You have to use something which doesn't really exist. I came up with a row of gingham elephant. Sure, they don't exist! Both die and papers are from MFT. The ABC stamp is from Concord and 9th.  I've send this card to a little baby boy.
You can still participate in the challenge. Head over to the blog for more information.

Hope you'll have a lovely weekend!

Floral sketches

I have made two cards with PTI's Floral Sketches recently. The first one is lacking a stamped heart. I hadn't discovered the flowerheart stamps back then. Still, I like the card for its colours. I used a strip of Lawn Fawn plaid paper.

 

 

For the second card I used paper from Crate Paper, the birthday die is from Avery Elle and the 'wishes' from a PTI set, stamped on some vellum.

 

 

Thanks for hopping by! 

Hopping bunny

My sister in law asked me to make a 'thinking of you' card with Avery Elle's Woodland Wonders. I saw a great card from Vera Rhuhay and I lifted that idea. I used a paper pad from Lawn Fawn for the hill side. The frame is from Mama Elephant and the sentiment from Papertrey Ink.

 

 

 

 

I'd like to participate in the current challenge at addicted to Stamps and More challenge - anything goes

Thanks for hopping by! 

Wedding card

No idea that I still could create such "sweet" cards... Hopefully it is not too sweet...
Today is Miranda's wedding day and of course I made her a card. I wanted to use my new Papertrey Ink set 'Floral Sketches' and some new inks. Turned out to be quite a romantic style, but in a way I liked it. I still have meters of ribbon. Don't use it anymore, but for this card is seemed to be perfect.  Maybe I should use it more often. The sentiment stamps are from Els Brigé and are actually from a Christmas and New Year set, but when the set was released I saw a perfect stamps for wedding cards. The gingham paper is from MFT stamps.

That's it for now. Thanks for hopping by and see you soon somewhere in blogland!

Birthday shaker

I made this card for Rhodé´s birthday which was a couple of weeks ago, but I forgot to show it here...
It´s made with a Crate Paper´s paper pad and the birthday die from Mama Elephant is one I borrowed.from Rhodé.

Thanks for hopping by!

You!

The current challenge at the City Crafter's blog is 'You'. This morning before the warmth overtook my craftroom I made a card with Mama Elephant's Chance of Rain. Nope, I'm not hoping for a shower of rain during these summerdays in the Netherlands, but showers of joy are always welcome. Perfect sentiment for this challenge as the 'you' is in capital letters to put emphasise on it!

Thanks for hopping by!

Special delivery in London

More baby cards have been made in my craftroom. One of my colleagues of our English department in school became father. Last year I won a gift certicficate of MFT stamps and I picked the London Sklyline die among other things. So far, I didn't create anything with it as the ideas I had in mind didn't work out the way I thought it would be nice. However, this morning, the idea of today's card turned out great! A perfect way of matching this die with Avery Elle's special delivery! I used some dark blue cardstock for the skyline, although it seems to be black in the photo.

Enjoy your day!

Hey baby!

I love square cards and especially the 10x10 cm ones. I am always a bit nervous when sending them in the post as the cards are so tiny, but so far, all cards have reached their destination. Hopefully it is the same with this card. I coloured the rabbit of Avery Elle's Woodland Wonders and used some papers from Crate Paper's Little One. I added some foam tape on the front paper in order to get some dimension into the card. The sentiment is from Avery Elle's Special Delivery. The little banners are made with a punch from SU.

Thanks for hopping by!

baby elephant

Long time no see! We have been home for more than a week after our holiday, but still not really in a cardmaking mood... However, I had to make a baby card and I did it in a CAS style! I used the Jungle Friends set from MFTstamps in combination with the matching paper pad. The sentiment is from PTI and it is stamped onto vellum which was wrapped around the card over a piece of striped patterned paper. I was inspired by latest Make-it-Monday video: sentiment strip grounding.

I'd like to participate in the current Addicted to Stamps challenge: anything goes as well!

I've got one week left before school starts again. Hopefully I'll find some inspiration as I only have a few cards in stock...

Hopefully you all have had a wonderful summer so far! Enjoy it!

Hello!

A very busy and tiresome period has been finished! The schoolyear is over and I took my last test for my studies for this schoolyear last week. That means holiday time! Although I have to do lots of stuff for my studies (I'm a bit behind schedule) it will be mainly a period of relaxing time! 
Today's card is made with PTI's Morning by Morning' and a MFT Hello die. Quick and easy, but I love the outcome of it.

                                        

I don't know when I will blog again as we will soon leave for a holiday. Hopefully I can hop by and visit your blogs every now and then. 

Thanks for hopping by!

Birthday post!

Our niece celebrates her 7th birthday today. I made her a tag and will attach it to her birthday present.
A couple of weeks ago Rhodé borrowed a few stamp sets, among them the Sunday Stroll set from Mama Elephant. She made this interactive card with the set and I left her a comment that I was going to copy that idea! So, here it is. The papers are from Crate Paper, the tag and text dies are from Avery Elle.

 

I am quite sure our niece will like this tag!
Thanks for coming by!

P.s. The Dutch Card Lovers challenged us to lift a card from a designer. I didn't create this tag on purpose for this challenge, but I think it will fit. I have known Rhodé for a year or so. She is a very talented card maker and has developed her own style in a very short time. And the best thing: she lives in my town! It is definitely inspiring when you have someone near by with whom you can share materials and ideas! After I created this card and wrote this blog post I visited her blog for the link to the card. There I saw that she lifted my card. Isn't that funny?! And that is why I thought: let's link this card to the DCL challenge. OK, that was quite a long p.s... I quit for now!

Elephants

Have you already seen the Jungle Friends from MFT stamps? The die set was released in a kit a couple of months ago, but now you can buy the kit items separately. I think the animal dies are perfect, as you can make cards quickly without any colouring or time consuming techniques. Today, I've got two cards with the elephants from this set. There are two different elephants, a small one and a bigger one. Both are adorable! For the first card, I only die cut a few pieces from the set and combined them with the sun die and a balloon from an Avery Elle set. I didn't use a sentiment, so the card is suitable for different occasions. For the second card I masked a circle and coloured it with distress ink, splashed some water, add some dimension behind the elephant and the balloon and adhere the sentiment die from Avery Elle and stamped with a birthday stamp from Papertrey Ink.

Thanks for hopping by!

Sophisticated Script

I've got several Alphabet Stamps, but Sophisticated Script from Concord and 9th was a really must have. I don't have a neat handwriting and I can't do any calligraphy so this set is perfect for me.

I created this very CAS baby card. I used a strip of Crate Paper. The little heart is from a Lawn Fawn set. It is quite a classical card and as I was in a hurry, it kept me busy for only a few minutes.

Enjoy this Saturday! 

Daisies

Sometimes I buy a mini stamp set, just because the price is so good. Quite often a set like that disappears in my stampboxes without being used. With Altenew's mini set 'Daisy' that isn't the case at all. Lovely set, very versatile. If you use different colours your card is totally different from the one you made before with the same set.
For today, I've got three cards with this set. I used the same sketch, but with different details. The first one got a sentiment die from Avery Elle and the 'wishes' stamp is from PTI. I added a strip of vellum and splashed a few drops of inks over the card. The second is in the same colour scheme , altough one daisy has gone. I stamped a sentiment from Els Brigé onto the vellum strip and I used some twine. Finally, a blue card. Again same idea!

I'd like to play along in the following challenges:

Addicted to CAS - Petals 

CAS-ual Fridays- Florals

Addicted to Stamps and More - anything goes

Casology - CAS (they celebrate challenge #200!)

Thanks for coming by and have a lovely weekend! 

Let's fly away!

A boy in our church is severly ill. I wanted to send a card which hopefully makes him smile. I used the same idea as this card I made previously. For the boy is used the airplane from the Fly away set from Papertrey Ink. The papers are from SU. This boy has got a younger brother and I thought it would be nice to send him a card as well. Same idea, but different colours. I didn't add a sentiment, just because I don't know what kind of sentiment would be appropriate. I wrote a message inside and invited the boys to become the pilot of these airplanes. Hopefully they love these cards!

It was really hard to film and get the airplane moving at the same time.  Other times the airplane flew quite smoothly...

Thanks for hopping by!

Hello!

For today's card I was inspired by Laurie Willison's card. Loved the way she did it.
So, I lifted her card, although I used another leaf stamp and stamped the leaves in straight lines. The stamp is a small 3 step one from Altenew's mini stamp 'Daisy'. The 'hello' die is from MFT stamps.

Thanks for hopping by!  

10 x 10

Today a 10x10 card. Made with some Studio Calico papers, a stitched rectangle die from Lawn Fawn, a leave die from Simply Graphic and twine. The sentiment (Dutch abbreviation for Congrats) is stamped with the SU Alphabet Roller stamp. A quick and easy card to create!

Thanks for hopping by!

Woodland wonders

After wo weeks of holiday and a studytrip to England, this week will be quite a normal week. Although today is a day off as well. Hopefully I still remember how to teach :). I couldn't craft a lot either, so today I show a card which I made a few weeks earlier. It is made with Avery Elle's Woodland Wonders. A set which was released last January and it was high on my wishlist. Love the trees and the critters.

 

Thanks for hopping by!



one sketch, two cards

I have recently played with some paper pads from crate paper. I didn't use a specific sketch, but I came up with this one just by trying some things. I first created the brown card ( a get well card) and copied that one in a more colourful scheme (birthday).

 

 

Thanks for hopping by!  

Watercolouring

I have tried some water colouring recently. I heat embossed stamps from the SU What I love set and coloured them with distress inks. This is the result. I used a birthday die from Avery Elle and a wishes stamp from Papertrey Ink. I splashed some ink as the final touch.

Enjoy the weekend! 

London Mice parade

These London Mice from MFT stamps are joining  the parade singing a birthday song for our niece!
For this card I was inspired by Laura's spinner card tutorial . Aren't they adorable?

 

Thanks for hopping by!